Digimon Coded
by DigimonCoded
Summary: Time is only an illusion...


"What a disaster!", Aicha exclamated, as she pushed the big back door of the school auditorium, followed by a shorter, and a little bit plumpy girl, who was trying to keep up with her.

"Come on Val, it wasn't that bad..."

"It wasn't?" Aicha suddenly stopped. "It wasn't?! Come on, Ena! More than 500 people were supposed to come... There was barely 100!"

"But those 100 loved you, didn't they?"

"If you count a half-minute faint applause as "loving", then yes..."

Ena's face fell a little bit. She didn't know how to cheer her friend up. Unlike her, Aicha didn't look really sad. She was furious and upset. She stormed out of the school, through the schoolyard, and towards the big park up the street.

"I don't understand...", she said a little bit more calmly when Ena caught up with her. "This was supposed to be our big day. How are we supposed to play in clubs, on some festivals, in front of thousands of people, when we can't even fill one stupid school hall?!"

"Don't be so dissapointed. You were great, and you know it."

"I just wish the others would have appreciated it..."

"Oh, they will. You just need time. And maybe a little more promoting. Come on, you didn't even wait for the other members of the band!"

"Ah, they'll be fine. They're not babies, you know."

"You're right.", Ena giggled. By then, they already reached the crossing on the King Alexander's Boulevard, and entered the Tash Park.

It was a beautiful big park, one of the biggest in Belgrade, and the closest one to their school. Made from two parks separated by a big street with University of Law on the one corner, and another high school on the other, it was a favourite place for people of all ages to rest and relax, drive their bicycles, take a nice walk, or play with their dogs. The part they entered was the left, the bigger one; in the center of the park there was a fountain which played music together with with fabulous light effects by night. Around it, there were few children playgrounds. The sight of the marvelous big Saint Marco's Church at the very end of the park, dominated the view. Aicha threw herself on the first park bench they came upon, not realizing until then how actually exhausted she was from all the fuss. "Aaah, the sweet breeze", she said calmly, as she was caressing her long, blonde hair, trying to remove the little nodules that appeared in her hair from all the headbanging on scene. Aicha closed her eyes. It was the beginning of September, still hot, leaves were still green, the sweet breeze was caressing her cheek, the smell of summer was still lingering in the air, and all that helped her forget her band's disasterous performance from earlier that day, for a moment.

Her friend didn't feel that relaxed. She watched two little kids, probably around 4-5 years old, chase a big labrador dog. One of them tripped and fell, which was followed by a scream and loud crying, and calling her mommy. The worried woman ran to her child, followed by the laugh of another one. Mean child. Of course, the dog got away.

"Nothing interesting ever happens here...", suddenly said Ena. Aicha snapped out of her daydream. "What do you mean?"

"Ah, you know. We spend our days chasing something we don't even know what is. It's all about school, band rehearsals, pointless hanging in the parks, and beer..."

"Aaaahh. Beer. Good thing you reminded me." Aicha opened her bag and pulled out a can of beer. "Almost forgot about this little buddy." She opened it and started moving the stay-tab back and forth, saying the letters of the alphabet while she was doing it. "A - B - C..."

"I can't believe you still do that every time you open a can with a drink, after all these years!"

"...don't interrupt me! T - U... V", she stopped when the stay-tab mechanism broke on the letter V, and observed it carefully. "So someone whose name starts on V is thinking about me..." She couldn't really recall who could it be at the moment. Viktor from the band? Vladimir from their class?

"Val, that's not true..."

"Yeah, whatever", Aicha finally tossed away the stay-tab. "So, what were you talking about?"

"Well... about how nothing really interesting, unusual haven't happened here in a very, very long time..."

Aicha took a big sip of beer before turning towards Ena. She thought about her words for a moment. Really, nothing really dangerous or exciting didn't happen here in a long time. There were always some small political crisis, sometimes some group fights between fans of two opposed football teams... But that was it. Nothing really dangerous and bad since 1999. And she wasn't willing to change it. "What, do you want another war?"

"No, I didn't mean like that!", Ena tried to justify what she just said. "I meant like, no adventures... No anything paranormal, like ghosts or magic... Or aliens."

This made Aicha chuckle a little bit. "Ha - ha - ha! Aliens? Here?! There's nothing here that the aliens would be interested in, trust me..."

Ena's face fell. "It would be kinda cool to see an NLO. You know that Helena saw one, don't you? She blabs about that every now and then. Almost as if she had a close encounter with them! And the most dangerous thing I have ever done is riding the public transport with no ticket..."

But Aicha wasn't really listening to her friend. The mentioning of the word "adventure", as the fact that they were currently at the Tash Park, just brought an idea to her mind. Her smile suddenly turned into a little bit michevious grin. "You want an adventure, you say?"

Ena knew that face. She smiled back. "What do you have on your mind?"

"Are you claustrophobic?"

"Umm no... not really. Never have I experienced something like it."

"Then I think I just may have a little surprise for you..."

Two friends said goodbye on the bus station, where Ena took a bus home, while Aicha decided she'd prefere to walk. It was about 8:30 in the evening, the sun was slowly setting down, the city was becoming dappled with greyish shadows. People were passing by Aicha, but she wasn't noticing them. She wasn't even thinking about the thing she prepared to show Ena tomorrow, in the morning, when they decided to skip school and meet at the park. No; the bad thoughts about her bad performance returned as soon as Ena left.

For a 19-year-old, Aicha Valeriya Vasileva was pretty immature. Even though she had an idea what is she gonna be in her life - an animator - she still didn't feel ready for obligations and serious work. It was her last year of high school, and her thoughts were occupied with her band, songs she was supposed to write but never started, all the grades she had to improve, and one black-haired boy, who, as she has noticed recently, had become the more and more frequent guest in her head.

He was at the school auditorium today; him and Aicha weren't strangers, they actually had a lot of mutual friends, used to hang out al together from time to time, but have never been really "friends" either. Today, she didn't have an opportunity to talk to him. While she was helping with packing the instruments, he and his friends left. Aicha was feelind ashamed, a bit. She was really good at playing the guitar; not so good at singing, but they had another vocal, so that was fine. What was the problem then? Should they replace some members? Add some new ones? Include more original songs?

Maybe I'm overthinking this too much, she thought as she pulled out her key and opened the door.

A smile appeared on her lips as she was greated by two loud, carefree voices.

"Val, you're home!", the louder, female one said, as a pretty, blooming chocolate-haired girl ran to the hallway to great her older sis. Aicha gave her a kiss on the cheak and a long hug. "How you doin', Lei? Everything fine? Mom's not home?"

"Nope", Leila said, as the other, male but still child's voice, called from another room. "Val, could you come here for a second?"

Aicha threw her schoolbag on the ground and entered a small room. There were two beds in this room; a boy around 10-years-old, with gentle blond hair that was falling to his shoulders, was sitting on one of them, and trying to fix something that looked like a miniature cellphone.

"Hey, Andrey!", she sat by his side. His little face seemed tense and focused on the tiny thing, which was starting to make him feel really pissed off. "What's the problem?"

"I can't start up this stupid thing!", her youngest sibling replied. He was ready to throw the device to the floor, but Aicha prevented him. "Let me see. What is this anyway...Oh."

She was turning the little device in her hand, as memories overwhelmed her. This was her old Tamagotchi pet; a gift from her aunt for her 7th birthday. Aicha hasn't seen this thing in years; she was very surprised that it was still alive, it seemed undamaged. She stood up and took a sharp pencil from a working table in the corner of the room. She pressed a tiny reset button on the back of the Tamagotchi. Nothing happened.

"Where did you find this thing? I was looking for this for years!"

"I dunno, I was roaming our basement, looking for that old boots Daddy left last winter, and I stumbled upon that. It just appeared from somewhere. Must had fallen from some shelf, or fell out from a box."

"But it doesn't work anymore...", Aicha said sadly, looking at her old toy.

"What is it at all?"

"It's a Tamagotchi. Like some kind of a virtual pet. When you turn it on, there is a tiny icon of a pet on this little screen. You treat it, you give it food, drinks, take it to the toilet, play games with it, and watch it grow up day by day. To the 7-year-old me, it was like having a real pet!"

"Too bad it doesn't work." Being born and grown in the 3rd millenium, Andrey was really curious how some older toys looked like and worked, before there were iPhones, newest modern consoles and all that stuff. "I guess we can't buy a new one nowadays either..."

"Nah, they don't sell them anymore..." Aicha put off the virtual pet on the table, but then suddenly took it again. "Hey, I have an idea!"

"What?"

"Could you bring me the screwdriver? The small one, with red coating?"

Moments later, Andrey returned with a screwdriver, and Aicha opened the back of the virtual pet. She took some batteries from an alarm clock that was laying on the table, and replaced the old, rusty ones in the pet. When she put the back side in it's place again, and pressed the reset button, the pet emited a tiny "Beep!". To their great surprise, it was working.

"There you go!", she threw the Tamagotchi towards Andrey. Now Leila too seemed interested in what's going on, and she was watching what Andrey was doing with the pet, over his shoulder. He was analysing his new toy. It was egg-shaped, with something that resembled floppy rabbit ears on the side. In it's middle there was a rectangular screen, with three soft yellow buttons below it. On the screen, you could see a word "HELLO!" and something like a tiny rabbit moving and waving to you, all in black and white.

"I think I need a rest. A good one!", Aicha said as she was stretching and yawning. "It was a tough day today.", she stood up and went towards her room, leaving her two younger siblings fascinated by the toy from the 90's. She didn't even bother to remove her makeup; she was that tired. She slipped into her big, comfy sleeping T-shirt, threw herself on the bed, and fell asleep as soon as her cheek touched the pillow, not even realizing that she'd completely forgotten about the unfortunate events from that afternoon.

The day after was sunny, beautiful and warm, even better than the day before; Aicha seemed happy. Maybe it was because it was finally Saturday, and maybe just because she decided not to bother herself with yesterday's performance anymore; it's not their first nor their last, it's gonna get better, right?

Wearing one of her favourite blue dresses and an optimistic smile, after a small fight with her brother because he wanted to take Tamagotchi to his friend's, and Aicha wanted to show it to Ena too (she won!), she was hapilly walking through the streets of her town, towards the place where she agreed to meet Ena. Ena, who was already waiting, noticed the change in Aicha's behaviour from yesterday, as soon as she saw her approaching their meeting spot.

"You look beautiful today!", the plump girl said merrily, as she gave her friend a kiss on the cheek. "Did Leon ask you out on a date?", she winked and pushed Aicha jokingly with her elbow.

"You silly!", Aicha blushed a little. "No he didn't! I'm just feeling great today and that's all!", she pushed Ena's shoulder gently. Ena giggled like a little girl. "Okayyy, temptress! So what's that big surprise you wanted to show me?"

"Do you have a flashlight?"

"Yep."

"A permanent marker"

"Yes, I brought everything that you told me."

"Alright then! Let's go! Come, follow me", Aicha said as they went behind the Saint Marco's Church, down some stairs, towards an old nightclub which has been closed for a few years.

Near the entrance to the club, there was a tall fance with a notice "DANGER; STAY AWAY!" on it. The fense had some kind of a "gate", and it was closed by a padlock.

"Oh no... This wasn't here when I checked it last time!"

"Does that mean we can't get in?" Ena didn't seem to be really disappointed. She was a little bit freaked out by the look of this place; even though it was the middle of the day, this part of the park was dark. Behind the fence she could see something like an entrance to a cave. She didn't like the idea of that, she realized that at the very moment Aicha told her to bring a flashlight. But she didn't want to let her friend down; Aicha looked very excited, she didn't want to ruin her happiness and make her return to her gloomy mood from the day before, and pointless worrying about the band.

"Well...actually, it doesn't." To Aicha's surprise, the padlock fell off when she just pulled it a little harder. It must have been just placed there, unlocked, to keep the intruders and visitors like them away.

Aicha pulled the gate and approached the entrance of the cave. From this distance, they realised it's more like a tunnel than a cave. It was leading downwards; and it was dark and unlit.

"So here they are", Aicha announced proudly, almost as she was an archeologist presenting some great ruin she just discovered. "The Catacombs."

Ena wasn't sure if she wanted to go inside at all. But Aicha has already entered the tunnel and turned on her flashlight. "Are you coming?"

Her voice echoed from inside the tunnel. "Y-yes I am...", Ena almost stumbled as she was trying to find her flashlight.

Beside the feeling of mystery and chill, the catacombs didn't really have anything interesting to offer. Just a dark, slimy, scary place, which was even scarier if you knew the story behind it - how there is a whole system of underground tunnels below Belgrade and how during the war many of them were flooded; especially those that go under the river and that connected the two parts of the town, which were then parts of two different countries.

But this tunnel, as Aicha was explaining to scared Ena while they were sneaking through the catacomb, leaving marks on the walls just in case they get lost, wasn't one of the tunnels where there existed the danger of flood. This was just a tiny part of the system, which connects two parks - the Tash Park and the biggest and most beautiful park in Belgrade, Kalemegdan Park, and a fortress from Otoman period, situated in that park.

"So you're saying that, by walking through this catacomb, we're gonna reach Kalemegdan?", Ena asked after about a half an hour of walking, but which seemed longer, much longer to her. She was gasping, she was already starting to get tired; she wasn't used to this kind of adventures.

"Yes. My friend did this once, she got out just below the Fortress!"

But more surprises were waiting for Ena, and not so pleasant ones. Just as Aicha finished her sentance, they came upon an "intersection". A smaller tunnel leading to the left, and a wider one, the same as the one they were inside, on the right.

"No, don't tell me..."

"Sandra didn't mention this to me...", Aicha mumbled, cursing her friend for not mentioning an important thing like this. Which turn should they take? And what's on the end of the other one? And how long do they have to go yet? The batteries of their flashlights were already starting to get low...

"Listen, we're gonna be stuck here in the dark if we don't hurry up. I have no idea which way to take; but I might have an idea what to do."

"And I'm not gonna like it, right?"

"Well... I guess so." Aicha was now worried for Ena, who really had some fear in her eyes. "We take separate roads. Count half an hour. If in half an hour we don't reach the exit, we return back here. And then run back as fast as we can."

Ena glanced towards the two tunnels. She decided not to be a coward. She wanted an adventure, something to happen; she got one. "Can I at least take the right one?"

Aicha laughed. "Of course!"

"Then see ya in half an hour."

"Watch your way."

"If you don't come back, I'll tell Leon you love him."

"Go to hell!", Aicha picked up a small rock and threw it towards Ena. But she just sticked out her tongue and hurried up through the right tunnel.

The left tunnel was narrow, and going upwards. Two or three times Aicha had to walk on her knees, literally crawl through it, and she almost got stuck. But after not so much time, maybe not even 10 minutes, it started to get lighter. She didn't even need to use her flashlight anymore; she turned it off to save energy. The tunnel suddenly became very steep, and on top of that rise she saw a dot of light, which was becoming bigger and bigger as she was coming closer to it. Laughing up her sleeve and thinking about how she's gonna tease Ena that she'd found the exit before her, she pulled her arms, head and shoulders, and then the rest of her body, out of the tunnel, which from this side looked more like a rabbit hole. She cleansed herself from the dust, and then stood up. She seemed to be standing on some kind of a hill, a viewpoint; the salty smell of the seaside caressed her sense of smell, the wind was blowing through her hair, as she realized that in front of her was the most beautiful view she has ever seen; forests of pine trees, green meadows, snowy mountain tops on the far west... and a deep, giant, skyblue ocean on the east side, as far as an eye can see.

"Well, this sure isn't Kalemegdan..."

* * *

It was Friday night. Ken West was glad for the weekend. The term had just started, and yet he already had a history project to do. At least he had three whole weeks to do it. He did like learning about the Tainos, an aboriginal people of the Caribbean, so writing about them should be fun. He could write about how they were overworked to the point of extinction by the Spaniards. What a tragedy.

But all that could wait. Maybe he would decide to do some preparatory reading in the morning, but he had decided he would take the night to rest. He had changed out of his khaki uniform and put on a navy-blue polo shirt, black jeans, and white sneakers. As was his habit, he wore swim shorts under his jeans, even though his mother refused to let him swim at night, especially without supervision.

He loved living in Bull Bay. Not everyone in Jamaica could say they literally had the sea right outside their backyard. He could walk out the back gate and be on the beach. The downside, of course, was that the salty, humid air rusted every grill and gate, no matter how well protected it was from the elements. But Ken was happy with the trade-off.

Sitting on a boulder on the beach, he stared out at the black expanse that was the sea. The land breeze was cool against his dark skin. He'd forgotten his phone inside, so he couldn't be sure of the time, but he knew it was getting late and his mother or father would soon call him inside. He jumped off the rock, ignoring the sand in his shoes. The back gate was just a few metres away.

But something caught his eye. It was... in the air. Just floating there. But it didn't seem to have any real... substance. Ken couldn't believe what he was seeing. It looked like... a hole. Yes, that's what it looked like. A hole in... in what? In reality?

The something pulled at him like a moth to really hot lightbulb. It was about the size of a baskeball, and was level with Ken's chest. Its edges were white and glowed slightly. But what Ken saw inside was the intriguing part. Through this hole, Ken could see a scene that resembled the one in which he stood, but with one major difference: The warm colours of a sunrise or sunset washed the beach in its welcoming glow.

Mesmerised, Ken reached forward. He barely even remembered walking towards it. Before his fingertips were even a dozen centimetres away, the rift let out a burst of light that forced Ken to cover his eyes. When he opened them, he found himself on that very beach with the sun rising or descending into the sea horizon to his left. Frantic, he looked around, trying to find the hole again, scared that he would be trapped in this strange place.

It was nowhere to be found.

* * *

It was dark and damp where she was hiding, at one point she could have sworn she caught a glimpse of a spider skirting around in the darkness, but decided that it was just the shadows playing tricks on her and ignored it. Seth was eight when she discovered that hiding out in her brother's closet could be the perfect escape from her problems, which, at the time, mostly revolved around the arguments her parents would often get into; looking back on it she figured at the time that when she was well into her teens the arguments would have stopped and she wouldn't need to hide away as often as she did, but here she was fifteen and counting with her legs tucked tautly against her body and her arms wrapped around her knees in an attempt to fit into the ever shrinking space that was the closet of her older brother.

'Oi, bloke, it's nah fault of mine whether or not that worthless excuse for a son of yours is up to nah good. It wasn't me he was lookin' up tah-'

'Pig's arse, woman, I ought ta toss yoo's out for the garbologist!'

And there they were, her oldies- ol' mom and pop having another blue and biting each other's heads off for one reason or another. She listened for a moment, catching a few stray statements about her brother and wondering if he had skipped school again or whether he had come home late again.

CRASH!

Sounded like he hadn't come home at all. With a heavy sigh, Seth nestled further into the corner of the small closet and wished that there had been spiders in there with her, at least she'd have some form of company. After another moment of half dozing she listened again and found that silence greeted her ears; the arguing had finally stopped and it seemed like the two participants had settled into their respective dens to cool down. Opening the door tentatively, she listened to the familiar creak of the hinges, paused, then fully opened the door before crawling out of the space and allowing her body to uncurl itself and stretch. She didn't know how long she had been in there, but she did know that it was beginning to become too cramped for her; she was going to have to find a new hiding place.

"What're you doing in my closet?"

Seth, still crouching on the ground, gasped and turned her head quickly to see a figure silhouetted in the streetlight from outside the bedroom window.

"Amadi," she said his name on a relieved laugh and rose from her crouched position. She stared through the shadows to the figure of her brother climbing through his bedroom window and wondered why he hadn't just used the front door like he usually did, "I thought you'd left for the bush. Mom and pop didn't sound ta pleased with you bein' out this late...again."

"Don't worry about it, Seth, I know how to handle ma and pop, 'kay? It's nah problem of yours," Amadi finished pulling himself over the window sill and settled his back against it before he slid to the ground, letting out a groan of exhaustion, "And don't you go getting clucky, I get enough of it from them, think I want to hear it from you?"

Seth felt herself frown.

"Sorry," she walked over to where he was sitting against the wall and plopped herself down next to him, hugging her knees to her chest again as she did so. They were silent for what felt like a good five minutes, letting the sudden stillness of the house surround them and remind Seth just how awkward it was for that place to be quiet. Her speaking finally broke the silence, "Where were you?"

She knew the question was pointless, that he probably wouldn't answer it truthfully or would just laugh it off and not tell her, but she also knew there was no harm in asking. As much as she disagreed with her parents arguing, she agreed with them on the fact that her brother was being too reckless for his age; he was barely three years her senior and was rarely at home. They thought he was out partying with his friends, maybe even vandalizing the nearby abandoned houses as most kids his age seemed to like doing, but her parents always assumed the worst and that's why they argued; they thought he was out dealing with the wrong people and getting involved in drugs and organized crime. Seth didn't want to think about that, which was why she chose to hide.

"I've been out," classic Amadi answer to a classic Seth question. Seth could feel a tightness growing in her chest as she imagined her brother running with the wrong crowds as her parents had feared, she imagined him getting into fights and getting hurt, then she imagined what life would be like if he didn't come home one day.

"Amadi-"

"Seth, listen, don't tell ma and pop, but I reckon I'm in trouble," she paused in her exclamation and remained silent, listening to whatever it was he had to say.

"What do you mean-"

"Don't- just listen. I mean- it's nothing too bad, trust me, but it's...pretty bad," she was staring at him intently at this point, watching as he glared up at the ceiling and tried to think through his words, "I- took somethin'...from ma."

She didn't understand.

"Took?"

"Yeah, one of her necklaces-" he turned to her quickly and held up his hand to stop her from making any unnecessary comments, "Now before you bloody go judgin' me with your judgey eyes, just hear me out. It's not what you're reckoning."

"What do I reckon then-"

"Hush, listen- it was...for a sheila,"

Seth felt the tightness in her stomach instantly vanish in a drop that felt like a weight had just rolled off her shoulders, this feeling was almost as instantly replaced with that of the need to burst out laughing. She could feel a toothy grin threaten behind her lips, but fought against it. Settling instead for a thin mouthed:

"What-"

She saw her brother's cheeks darken and had to bite her tongue to keep from bursting into mocking laughter.

"A sheila- look, we've been...I've been crackin' on her for a while now and I told her- well I told her that I got her a prezzy for her birthday when I really didn't and, I just didn't want ta look like a total dipstick, so I just borrowed one of ma's old necklaces. Borrowed, I was gonna give it back," his words seemed to meld into each other as he rambled on, the blush on his dark skin becoming ever present in the glowing streetlight that filtered in through the window, "Honest, I wasn't planning on...losing it."

"YOU WHAT?!"

Seth felt her brother's hands clasp over her mouth in a harsh attempt at silencing her, she had to admit her exclamation had been a bit louder than she had anticipated, but it should have been expected from what he had told her. The next bit of conversation continued on with his hands still covering her mouth, leaving her with minimal audio input into the tale that he laid out for her. According to him, after he took the necklace he went out to the abandoned houses a few blocks down, a place where they would normally meet to mack on each other, but upon arriving noticed that the girl he fancied was already there- but with another guy. Angry and upset about what she had done to him, he had tossed the necklace as far as he could into the fields surrounding the empty houses. Of course, seeing his mistake, he attempted to search for it, but to no ends; he had lost the necklace in the thicket of the bush.

"Now do you see my problem? I've been spending these last few days trying to find the bloody thing but it's not there- I even skipped lessons a few times during the day to get a better look at the fields during the light, but nah," he removed his hands from her mouth and slumped back against the wall in a dejected manner, sighing loudly and sorrowfully, "If ma doesn't kill me I know pop'll make sure I cark it."

Seth scoffed slightly and observed her brother with an amused eye; wondering what it was he was going to do next. The following day, while Seth and Amadi were at school, Seth considered offering her own services to her brother and assisting him in his search for their mother's missing necklace, but she knew that he'd refuse her help; knowing her brother he would want to keep her as uninvolved as he possibly could to spare her the rod of their parents discipline, something that she appreciated. After thinking on the subject for the remainder of the school day, she came to the conclusion that, despite her brother's reluctance to let her help, she was going to visit the abandoned lots and try to find that necklace for him. That night, she readied herself, grabbing her spring coat to protect her from the chill and throwing on whatever clothes she could find in the dark of her bedroom. She considered taking her backpack with her, but decided against it, taking instead a torch and an extra pair of batteries in case she needed them; properly prepared for her nightly excursion she headed out into the night.

Her family lived just outside the city limits of Brisbane in a dense neighborhood of houses, a few blocks down on a dead end road there was a group of abandoned houses that were set for demolition and reconstruction. Surrounding these houses was a dense crowd of trees and tall grass, assuming this was where Amadi had tossed the necklace, this was where Seth set to work combing through the bush. She had been at it for hours before she saw it; a faint gleam of something reflecting off the light of her torch and glimmering in the shadows of the tall grass.

"Oh, come ta mama, you beaut," thinking that the gleam was the necklace, Seth stepped forward only to find that the ground where she had placed her foot was uneven and shaky. Cautiously, she shone her light forward and was greeted with a large, black sinkhole that seemed to just appear out of the ground and rise up in an attempt to swallow anyone unlucky enough to miss step into it's chasm of a mouth. Luckily for Seth, she had stopped before going any further, but had failed to take into consideration the weakness of the ground beneath her feet. Before she realized what was happening, she was falling; the ground beneath her had given way and she had tumbled forward into the hole, swallowed whole by the darkness that greeted her. The last thing she remembered was the sound of her own voice screaming followed by a sudden silence; it was almost as if all the sound had been sucked out of the hole she had fallen into. She thought she would reach the bottom any moment as she had been falling for what felt like ages, but no end came. She just continued to fall and tumble, the wind around her ears the only sound despite how much her throat hurt from screaming.

When she finally did hit bottom, it hurt, but it wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be. It felt more like she had fallen out of bed, the initial shock of it hurting more than the actual contact she made with the ground. Regardless, as soon as her body found solid earth, she lost consciousness. She was awoken a few hours later by a soft light that seemed to be filtering in from somewhere nearby; when she lifted her head, she saw that there was an opening a few steps away from her where the light was shining through. The opening was wide, but low to the ground, covered partially with what she thought were vines. Crawling forward, she squeezed through the opening in the cave wall and braced herself against the blinding light that followed. When she was through the space and out in the open, she allowed her eyes to adjust before looking around. Trees stood tall and overgrown before her, vines and branches hung low from above giving her the sense that she was sitting in the middle of a jungle and, by all means, she was. Every which way she looked she was surrounded by vegetation and a sweltering heat that made her want to take off the coat she had thrown on to fight the chill.

"Uuuuh-," her eyes came to rest on a glinting object on the ground before her, crawling forward once more she reached for it, but was scared backwards when something began to rustle the bushes violently in front of her, "Holy dooley!"

Afraid that whatever it was would hurt her, she shuffled backwards until her back came in contact with a hard surface and she curled her knees tightly against her chest, staring wide eyed at the moving bushes until they stopped and a small hand like appendage reached out to snatch the shining object that she had previously been reaching for off of the ground. It hung there for a moment, holding the trinket in it's clenched digits before it slowly receded back into the bush, causing the leaves to rustle once more before everything became still again. Seth didn't know what had just happened, but she knew one thing: it had frightened her and she wanted nothing more to do with whatever was hiding in the vegetation beyond her little clearing.

"Where am I?" she whimpered this softly to herself as she slowly looked around again and tried to make sense of what had just happened. Finding no answers to her question, she curled further back against the wall and pressed her face into her hands, sobbing softly into her palms as the unfamiliar sounds of the strange jungle swirled around her.

* * *

It was a normal day at Renetta's mother's bakery. The even sound of ovens humming was interrupted by a loud shouting as a really angry, black-haired girl stormed through the door. "Good morning honey...", she didn't even stop to greet her mother. She just ran upstairs through the open apartment door, and threw herself on the sofa, in front of the TV. "Is everything okay?", she heard a voice from downstairs. It belonged to her older brother, Wyatt, who was helping her mother down at the bakery. "I'm fine!", she said, and she turned on the TV. Weirdly, the picture didn't come on. Just dull TV snow. Renetta frowned and glared at the TV. "Ugh!", she mumbled. "It broke again." Like she wasn't upset enough. She stood up and went to her room, as she decided to write an email to her cousins on her mother's side, who lived in Japan. She used to write them quite often, telling them all the news and seeking comfort when she was sad. Today, she had to spill out everything that was on her heart. She has just broken up with her boyfriend - Christopher - because he cheated on her. Again. With the same person as he did a year ago - Renetta's biggest enemy, that stupid girl from her school, Rose Baker. She didn't want to tell Wyatt about it - she remembered very well how he wanted to kill Christopher the last time this happened. It was better this way. Her cousins would know what to do. Also, they could cheer her up like nobody else can.

As she finished her email, Renetta went back to the living room. She was very annoyed to find out that the TV was still broke. She turned it off, threw herself madly in the chair, and pulled out her Tamagotchi pet. She had that thing for years - playing with it used to calm her down and help her forget her everyday worries. And that's when something weird happened. Just when she was about to feed her virtual pet - a little white tiger - the damn TV turned on by itself! Renetta screamed, almost dropping her Tamagotchi. The screen went black, and then something like a black hole appeared on it - only it didn't seem like a normal TV picture. It looked rather... three-dimensional. The screen of her Tamagotchi started to glow, as the black hole became bigger and bigger, sucking Renetta into it. There was no use in resisting. She closed her eyes and screamed "Aieeeeeee oh man, why?!" but it was like no one could hear her. After about 15 minutes of turning and twirling, she landed on a pile of something soft.

Renetta coughed and spitted something out. Sand. Her throat was full of sand, as she realised she's not in her living room anymore. It was freaking hot, strong sunlight was burning her back. She got up and looked around her.

She was in the middle of a desert!

The new turn of events made Renetta's hair stand on end. "This has to be a dream", she said with a grumpy face, as she swore and cursed in French, like she used to do every time she was upset. Sand. Orange piles of sand and dunes everywhere around her... and then something caught her eye. On her far left, there was something like a big rock, with a cave in it. As there was nothing except sand and she didn't know where to go, and also the sun was starting to burn really painful so she needed to find a shelter quick, Renetta started to walk towards the cave.


End file.
